Sorry this is a rather long article but check out what the BANKS are making their employees do. And what about those GOOD NATURED bribes? And where do those reports go that indicate how many bank employess have sign their life away? LOL Link

SNIP

Comerica is stressing each employee's responsibility to get the Y2K message right, she adds. Each employee must take a 25-minute year 2000 computer-based training (CBT) course, pass a test and sign a statement saying he understands the bank's Y2K message and is accountable for what he says. Managers must report on the number of employees who have taken and passed the course and how many have attended Y2K training updates.

Finally, the bank uses some good-natured bribes to make sure employees get with the program. For example, Y2K e-mails often come with small rewards for those who open them or solve Y2K puzzles inside. Employees who are designated "Y2K champions" roam the buildings asking year 2000 questions and award $10 bills to those who give the correct answers.

The program is working, Siewert says. "We've had a 98% success rate on the CBT test, and employees are no longer getting into these hour-long conversations with people. We've provided them with the confidence to say, 'We can speculate for days, but this is what you need to know.'"

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), August 24, 1999

Answers

Learn to speak Koskian in one easy lesson! (Except, unlike our lovable Kosky or our beloved bank chairman, you WILL be held accountable for what you say.)

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), August 24, 1999.

Didn't this start with the POWs in the Korean War??? Brain washing by any other name is still brain washing!! The funny thing is that most of us doomers could give the right answers and collect those $10 bills.

Taz

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), August 24, 1999.

Where are the grown-ups?

-- jor-el (jor-el@krypton.uni), August 24, 1999.

The key information in this article was in the first 2 paragraphs:

08/23/99 Early last year, a woman was opening a certificate of deposit account at a branch office of Comerica Bank when a comment from a bank employee stopped her cold. "I don't know that I would do that," the employee said, "because this CD goes past the year 2000, and this bank is in trouble. We may not make it."

As luck would have it, the woman opening the account was the wife of Comerica's CIO. That day marked the beginning of the bank's efforts to educate its first line of customer service representatives on year 2000.

Pre-"education" the bank employee tried to give the customer the best information she had to allow the customer to make wise choices about the placement of her funds. Post-"education" the customer will get smiley-faced B.S. that has no relationship to reality. Caveat emptor.

BTW - did you hear Gary North about the FDIC rules that say that customer-owned records are not considered valid proof of what is in your accounts?

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), August 24, 1999.

Why was the wife of Comerica's CIO standing in line at a branch office to open a CD account? Something fishy here.

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), August 24, 1999.

Good question y2k Dave.. I missed that. Wife of the CIO, not the CEO. Perhaps a "sting" operation? Checking to see what the underlings are saying to the customer perhaps? Making sure they are giving the "right" message? And if THAT is the chief concern of the CIO, we are in deeper doo-doo than I thought.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), August 24, 1999.

Linda, I'll bet there are many 'mystery shoppers' in banks these days! Banks and lots of other customer service intensive industries utilize mystery shoppers as a way to find out how their customers are *really* treated.

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), August 24, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

It's also a commonly practiced method of collecting competitive intelligence.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage.neener.autospammers--regrets.greenspun), August 25, 1999.